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The Columbus, Ohio, Police Department has released bodycam footage from a police officer who got a call about two young black men with a gun. When Officer Peter Casuccio arrived at the scene, he found an 11-year-old and 13-year-old boy with a realistic BB gun. Casuccio had an tense exchange with the boys about the dangers of carrying a gun, saying he could've killed them.
The video begins with Casuccio speaking to the two boys on the side of a road. The boys' faces have been blurred to protect their identities. Casuccio tells them he got a call from someone saying "there's two young male blacks ... They look really young and they just flashed a gun."
"Listen, here's the deal, OK? You had to show somebody, because how did they know you had it?" Casuccio asks the boys. One of the boys said he did not show anyone the BB gun, he was just holding it.
"You can't do that dude, in today's world. Listen, that thing looks real," Casuccio replies.
The boys apologize, and Casuccio begins to tell them why holding a realistic-looking BB gun is dangerous. He asks how old they are. One boy says he's 11 and the other says he's 13.
"Do you think I want to shoot an 11-year-old? Do you think I want to shoot a 13-year-old?" Casuccio asks. The boys reply, "No, sir."
"Do I honestly look like the type of dude that wants to shoot anybody?" he asks, to which the boys reply, "No, sir."
"But do I look like the type of dude that would shoot somebody?" he asks, to which the boys reply, "Yes, sir."
Casuccio said he prides himself on being a "pretty bad hombre. Because I got to be." He warns the boys, "Don't make me."
The officer took the 11-year-old home and spoke with his mother. The released bodycam footage cuts to Casuccio speaking with the mom, with the video still blurred to protect identities. "I pull up on them, and I'm not going to lie to you, doing cop stuff, I drew up on them," Casuccio tells the mother.
The officer tells the mom her son "freaks out" and started pull the BB gun out of his waistband. "He could've shoot you for that, you know that?" the mother is heard telling her son. Casuccio says the gun fell, and he realizes it was just a BB gun.
"Regardless of what people say about the dudes wearing this uniform ... we care," Casuccio says. The officer says he's been in the military and as a police officer, has had to do things he hopes the boys' generation never has to do. "The last thing I ever want to do is shoot an 11-year-old, man. Because your life hasn't even gotten started yet. And it could've ended. Because I wouldn't have missed," Casuccio tells the boy.
"I could've killed you. I want you to think about that tonight when you go to bed. You could be gone. Everything you want to do in this life could've been over," Casuccio says.
The Columbus Police Department released Casuccio's bodycam footage Tuesday and it went viral, gaining widespread media attention. The video was released because "it was a good job done by the officer in a very, very tense situation, and we try to highlight those," PIO Sgt. Chantay Boxill tells CBS News.
In a notorious case in 2014, a 12-year-old Ohio boy was shot and killed while playing with a similar, fake gun. Tamir Rice, who was black, was playing with a pellet gun outside a recreation center near Cleveland when he was shot and killed by Timonthy Loehmann, who is white.
A grand jury declined to indict Loehmann. He was fired last year after it was discovered he was previously deemed "unfit for duty."
Yes. I do.
I believe police officers look for any excuse... and get sexual pleasure from it.
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